Isaac E. Messmore
{{short description|18th century American politician, Member of the Wisconsin Assembly}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix =
| name = Isaac E. Messmore
| image = Isaac E. Messmore.png
| caption = Photograph from Los Angeles Times obituary
|office = Wisconsin Circuit Court Judge {{nowrap|for the 6th Circuit}}
| term_start = April 10, 1861
| term_end = August 28, 1861
| appointer = Alexander Randall
| predecessor = George W. Gale
| successor = George W. Gale
|state1 = Wisconsin
|state_assembly1 = Wisconsin
| term_start1 = January 1, 1861
| term_end1 = April 10, 1861
| predecessor1 = John J. McKay
| successor1 = {{unbulleted list
| Thomas Benton Stoddard
(La Crosse district)
| Joseph M. Morrow
(Monroe district)
}}
|birth_name = Isaac Elijah Messmore
| birth_date = {{birth date|1821|8|21}}
| birth_place = Upper Canada, British Empire
| death_date = {{death date and age|1902|1|8|1821|8|21}}
| death_place = Los Angeles County, California, U.S.
| death_cause = Pneumonia
| restingplace = Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery
Los Angeles, California
|spouse = {{unbulleted list
| Editha Helen McKenney
| (m. 1848; died 1860)
| Margaret A. Hull
| (m. 1861; died 1902)
}}
|children = {{unbulleted list
| Charles Messmore
| Florence Helen (Kendall)
| {{sup|(b. 1848; died 1900)}}
| William Hull (stepson)
}}
|father = John Messmore
|mother = Jane (Moat) Messmore
| alma_mater = Richmond Law School
| profession = Politician
|party = Democratic
Republican (before 1870)
| allegiance = {{flag|United States|1862}}
| branch = {{flag|United States Army}}
Union Army
| serviceyears = 1862–1863
| commands = 31st Reg. Wis. Vol. Infantry
| unit = 14th Reg. Wis. Vol. Infantry
| battles = American Civil War
| mawards =
}}
Isaac Elijah Messmore (August 21, 1821{{spaced ndash}}January 8, 1902) was a Canadian American lawyer, politician, and Union Army officer in the American Civil War. He also held public office as a Wisconsin Circuit Court Judge and as a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly.
Biography
Born in Upper Canada, near Detroit, Isaac Messmore grew up in Michigan and later studied law as a young man, graduating from the Richmond Law School in Virginia; he went on to live in La Crosse, Wisconsin, where he practiced law in the 1850s.
In 1861, he served in the Wisconsin State Assembly as a Republican. Later in 1861, he was appointed a Wisconsin Circuit Court judge; however, his appointment to the bench was ruled to have been improperly authorized by the governor, and thus invalid.'Proceedings of the State Bar Association of Wisconsin 1903,'Wisconsin Bar Association: 1903, Biographical Sketch of Isaac E. Messmore, pg. 228-231.
Messmore next went on to serve in the 31st Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War, attaining the rank of colonel.
After the end of the war, Messmore resettled in Washington, D.C., where he was very soon appointed assistant commissioner of the Internal Revenue Bureau. While in Washington, in 1867, he acquired the Meridian Hill estate, an older property which sat a short distance north of the White House; he then subdivided this tract of land, and its lots were sold to create a new neighborhood.Meridian Hill: A History, by Stephen McKevitt (History Press, 2014), pg. 42-45.
In the late 1860s, he next served on the Metropolitan Revenue Board of the City of New York, primarily fighting excise-tax fraud. Messmore subsequently moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he purchased and became, in 1881, the editor and publisher of the newspaper The Democrat.
He relocated to California, in 1886, first to Orange County, and then to Los Angeles, where he formed a successful law partnership with fellow Wisconsin transplant Amasa Cobb.{{cite news|url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/81166111/messmore-obit/ |title= Messmore Foretold Death to the Day |newspaper= Los Angeles Times |date= January 9, 1902 |page= 10 |accessdate= July 10, 2021 |via= Newspapers.com }} He was also active in the California Democratic Party and was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States House of Representatives in California's 6th congressional district in 1894.{{cite news|url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/81167610/messmore-lg/ |title= Patton Nominated |newspaper= The San Francisco Call |date= August 23, 1894 |page= 3 |accessdate= July 10, 2021 |via= Newspapers.com }} Colonel Messmore was noted to have been a defender of the rights of the average citizen against the economic power of the railroads.
==Family==
Isaac first married Editha McKenney in 1848; she died about 1860. He remarried, in about 1861, Margaret A. Jones ({{nee}} Hull) of New York, who lived with him until his death. Children: a son, Charles and a daughter, Florence, as well as an adopted stepson, William Hull.
Isaac Messmore died in California in 1902, two days after the death of his wife, Margaret. Both died of pneumonia.History of Kent County, Michigan,' 1881, Biographical Sketch of Isaac E. Messmore, pg. 426-427. Messmore died in Los Angeles, California on January 8, 1902.'Death of Colonel I. E. Messmore.' The Ottawa Citizen (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada), January 9, 1902, pg. 1'Death of Col. Messmore,' The Muscatine News-Tribune (Iowa), January 10, 1902, pg. 3
Notes
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{Find a Grave|71961137}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Messmore, Isaac E.}}
Category:Politicians from Los Angeles
Category:Politicians from Grand Rapids, Michigan
Category:Politicians from La Crosse, Wisconsin
Category:People of Wisconsin in the American Civil War
Category:Wisconsin state court judges
Category:Members of the Wisconsin State Assembly
Category:Wisconsin Republicans
Category:Editors of Michigan newspapers
Category:University of Richmond School of Law alumni